A Simple Drive Folder Structure for Turning In Assignments

Google Classroom is the most popular way to share files with students. I was excited to finally be able to use this tool when I was teaching MYP Design at my last school.

The interface of Classroom is very easy to use. It is a great way to share files, assignments, and information with students.

I ran into issues with Classroom when I did not specify how I wanted assignments turned in. Once I received an assignment that most students submitted as a GSlide or GDoc, as a series of pictures. It was frustrating, so I went looking at alternatives.

The above method was what my teaching partner used.

Basically ...

1. The teacher creates a folder for the class in the teachers Drive. 
2. The teacher then has students create folders for the class in their own Drives. Students should label their folders with their names. For their own organization, they should also put the class title in the folder name.
3. The student then shares the folder he/she created back with the teacher.
4. The teacher moves the student folder(s) to the class folder. After that is done, the teacher will be able to view or edit (depending on permissions) the document from within the class folder.

If you use this for assignments ...

1. Be sure to tell students how to title their files and type of file what you want to see.
2. Be prepared for some hiccups.
3. You need to drag over the student folders so it might be best to do this with students in the classroom with you.

Using Find and Replace in Google Docs

In this animated GIF, you can see how to access the find and replace feature in Google Docs.

Use Command+F to access tbe find tool. Then click on the three dots (a symbol of more) to access the find and replace tool.

Google Image Search within Google Docs

One of my favorite tools within Google Docs/Slides is the ability to search for content and images. What a time save that can be!

However, you have to be careful and pay attention to the licenses.

I was watching a YouTube video where a professional designer was making a flyer for a school. He started off by using the image search feature within Google Slides to find an image. In the video, he points out that using Google Image search within Google Docs only gives you images that are safe to reuse.

Well, yes and no.

Even when Google has indexed an image as Fair Use, the license can change. And often the CC license requires an attribution. (And really, you are using someone else's work, so you should attribute anyway, right?)

The video below shows one example.

It is always a good idea to check the license terms yourself when using images you find.

Some Ways to Share Links With Students

A while back I got a question about how to share a list/group of links with students. Here are some ideas to share links with students in no particular order.

A New Page on the Class Website

I would create a new page in our class blog for links to research projects. I think this is a good way to do it because it forces students to visit the class blog which they might not otherwise do. A new page can be created for each project, and saved as a reminder for the future.

Shared Memit/Diigo/Flipboard 

Diigo has a feature that allows you to create groups to which students can subscribe. I have been gradually moving away from Diigo, however, in favor of Memit which is more visual. I have been using it as a way to collect resources for teachers. Flipboard is another option that is becoming increasingly more popular. 

Read: How Flipboard Can Help Your Students.

Shared Google Doc

Another option is to simply create a Google Doc/Sheet/Slide and share it with students. Since it is a Google product, updates will be automatic. Make the Doc View Only so students don't accidently erase content.

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is a visual linking app. The buttons are big icons of the websites to which they point. The downside of this is that you need to keep track of another URL to share with students. That could be overcome with a custom bit.ly URL like bit.ly/ResearchResources.

Google Classroom

Create an announcement and share your Google Doc with your students this way. 

QR Codes

QR Codes might be a good way you would want to share links with your class. The QR Code could link directly to your links list. Just make sure your students have access to devices with QR Code readers.

There are many ways to make them, but here is one that I have used: QR Code Generator.

Google Tone

If your students are using Chrome, they will be able to use the extension Tone. Tone is a way for teachers to share a link with students in their classrooms through a noise. It's really only good for sharing one URL at a time, so probably not that practical for this list, but I wanted to include it anyway. Maybe you could share the list as the URL you send out.

The Haiku Deck Guide

I love Haiku Deck. I love how simple it is for anyone to start using and create amazing presentations. 

For such an easy app to learn, Haiku Deck has an immense amount of options, and trying to explain them has taken me a few days.

Here is a comprehensive guide to Haiku Deck (15 pages!) ... and I feel there is so much more talk about with this app.

The first half of this guide is a quick start guide - designed to get busy people creating in less than 10 minutes. I have also recorded a video tutorial that is only 4 minutes. I wanted it to be 2, but I also wanted to show some advanced features that could be useful.

Displaying a Different First Page in Google Spreadsheets

While I was inputting my comment links into my COETAIL Google Spreadsheet this morning, I found that it does not have the same functionality (duh) as Excel. What I thought would happen last time I saved it, was that it would open on the last page I was looking at; in this case Course 2.

When I opened it up this morning, it opened to Course 1.

Since I like things easy, I tried looking online to figure out how to make the spreadsheet always open to where I want it to. But after some searching, and not knowing the correct terminology probably, I could not find what I was looking for. With some tinkering though, I found out how to do it.

Step 1 - Open your spreadsheet.

Step 2 - Go to the bottom of the page where the tabs for the different spreadsheet pages are.



 Step 3 - Simply click and drag the tab of the page you want to display first to the far left.

It is that easy and I did a headsmack when I figured it out.

How to Embed Photos From Flickr Using the HTML Code

Ron Starker brought up a good point. Flickr's guidelines state:

... pages on other web sites that display content hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr.

So, how do you do this?

Step 1 - Locate the Photo You Want

joshua tree by me

Step 2 - Find the HTML Code and Select the Size Photo You Want

Highlight the HTML code and click CTL+C to select it.

Step 3 - Embed the HTML into The Blog Post

Go to your blog and click on the HTML button in the upper-right side of the post box. In here you can insert the code by clicking CTL+P.

Step 4 - Add the Photo Citation

Take a look at Jeff's post about citation. Click on the photo and you will see an icon of a camera show up. Click on that and you can then edit the photo details.

Hopefully this helps clear up any confusion rather than create more.